Operation Desert Snake

Operation Desert Snake (5-9 April 2006) was a military operation carried out by the US Marine Corps against Iraqi insurgents in Sinjar, Iraqi Kurdistan. The Americans were defeated by the insurgents with heavy losses.

Battle
On 5 April 2006, CIA satellite imagery showed that Iraqi insurgents occupied a village in the Kurdish region of Iraq and had dug in. Marines sent a task force to clear the city of insurgents and to liberate their Kurdish allies, and the US Marine Corps soldiers had to advance uphill under heavy machine-gun fire from the insurgents. They suffered heavy losses, and they were able to capture the first two abandoned houses on the hill before they were pinned down along the road to the town. Insurgents fired on American troops as they tried to move up the road, and the few American soldiers that actually reached the city of Sinjar were forced back and took heavy losses. As a result, the Americans were forced to retreat, and the insurgents were victorious.